


The Same First Kiss

by Whilhelmina_Prince



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: First Kiss, Kissing, M/M, teen rhink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 02:01:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11048967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whilhelmina_Prince/pseuds/Whilhelmina_Prince
Summary: Rhett comes to Link with a big favor to ask





	The Same First Kiss

"We had the same first kiss."

"But not to each other."

We've told the story a hundred times, and we always tell it the same way. But when we sat down to work on that chapter of the book, I wondered ... should we finally tell the truth?

I remember so clearly the day that Rhett came to my house, wringing his hands and sweating. He'd shot up that year and towered over me, but when I brought him trembling to my room, it was like comforting a small child who'd been scolded by an angry parent. 

I thought at first he must have gotten in trouble at home for something, or maybe he was nervous about an upcoming basketball game, but none of that explained the way his heart was racing or the fact that he wouldn’t meet my eyes. 

He sat on my bed, fists clenched on his knees, heels tapping. I sat beside him and waited; you couldn't rush a guy like Rhett. 

An eternity later, after a million heavy breaths and a hundred false starts, he finally told me. 

"I need you to kiss me."

If I'd had a drink right then, I would have spit it across the room. I had to have misheard him. It had all come out in a low, fast mumble; there was no way I could have heard him correctly.

"What did you say?"

He took a deep breath and turned to face me. "I ... I need you to kiss me."

My eyebrows knitted together as I tried to make sense of it.

"Rhett, I don't understand."

His reply started slowly and then became a rapid churn of vowels and consonants that I could barely make out. "It's just that ... I'm taking Amber to the movies and I had John tell Leslie that he heard from some girl in Lillington that I'm a good kisser so Leslie told Amber and now Amber thinks we're going to make out and I've never kissed anyone and I don't want her to find out that I lied."

He was out of breath when he finished. 

"So ... you want to ... practice?" I asked. "With me?"

My still-changing voice cracked over the words.

Rhett's cheeks turned a burning red as he nodded. 

I didn't know what to say. Rhett was my best friend; there was nothing I wouldn't do for him. I'd never denied him anything. He wanted a sleepover? Sure. Half of my lunch? Done. Cut my palm and swear my loyalty to our friendship? In a heartbeat. 

But this was different. This went against everything I understood about the world, which at that age, admittedly, wasn't much. But how could I say no? My best friend was sitting in front of me, pale and scared, pleading with me to help him. 

Saying no wasn't an option, even if I wanted to.

But the truth is that part of me was excited by the idea. Wanted it, even. 

Not for the reasons you might think. It was just that, we were just getting into the idea of dating girls, and I knew eventually I’d end up kissing one of them, and that would be my first kiss. And those girls, Amber, Leslie, and the rest, they were all real pretty. But I just knew that it was never going to be special with one of them. 

Rhett was everything to me. And we’d shared everything up to that point. So, in a weird way, it just made sense for us to share that, too. Because that way, it wouldn’t just be with whatever girl we happened to kiss first. It would be with each other. It would be special.

It would mean something.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Just …”

I almost said “Just pretend I’m her.” But that would sully the whole thing. So instead I said “Just kiss me like you want to kiss her.” Somehow that made it better.

Rhett nodded, his face flushed. He cleared his throat. He edged closer to me on the bed. I was too messed up to remember what I’d eaten for lunch, and I hoped my breath was okay.

I swallowed hard, and Rhett leaned in. Our noses were almost touching when he looked to me and hesitated. But I nodded, urging him along. He nodded back. 

Our lips touched awkwardly. Neither of us knew what to do, so for a moment, we just sat like that, still, lips pressed together. 

I can’t remember which one of us moved first. Maybe we just figured it out at the same time. But I remember turning my head, letting our lips glide across each other, the faint fuzz on his face tickling my still smooth skin. 

And then his hand was cupping my head, and my hand was on his chest. My lips opened, and his tongue snuck inside, warm and soft and inviting. I reciprocated, and my insides went all hot and tingly. 

I’d never felt anything like it, and it scared me.

But I didn’t jump away. I would never do that to him. I couldn’t have him thinking I wasn’t okay with this. I had to be okay with it. 

I was more than okay with it. I would have kept it up all afternoon if he hadn’t pulled away first.

It was a slow retreat, and he planted half a dozen little kisses around my mouth before he completely stopped. And then we just sat there, our foreheads pressed together, both of us panting and sweating.

“Was it okay?” I asked, breathlessly. “Was… was I okay?”

He released me from his grasp and nodded, licking his lips. “Yeah. You were … okay.”

We stayed there in silence, both of us staring at the floor.

“I should go,” he said at last. He stood up and started to leave. I moved to follow, not really wanting him to leave. 

He stopped at my bedroom door. I think he wanted to say thank you, but now that the moment was over, I don’t think he could. Didn’t matter, though. I knew he meant it.

Once we started making videos, we didn’t even discuss it. We just automatically told the story the way we had told everyone else in our lives. We both had Amber as our first kiss. It wasn’t completely a lie. Not exactly. Amber was the first girl we both kissed, just not the first person.

But we did have the same first kiss.

And now? Well, the thing is, it’s not that we really need to hide it. A lot of people probably wouldn’t be surprised. And I’m not ashamed of it. Hell, I’m even kind of proud of it. Not because it makes me some kind of super-worldly guy who isn’t afraid of being thought of as less as 100% heterosexual. I’m proud that Rhett trusted me enough to let me in, to show me his fears, to let me be the first. He chose me. And I chose him.

I guess the real reason we never tell the story the way it really happened is because we already share so much of ourselves with the world. So we keep this one thing, this one precious memory, to ourselves. Just for us.

We don’t talk about it. But every time he tells that story and I say “but not to each other,” he’ll gently nudge my knee with his, or squeeze my thigh with one of his giant hands, and I know that he cherishes our kiss as much as I do, that he hasn’t let our little white lie overwrite the memory of what really happened that day.

So when we finally sat down in the office to write that chapter, I opened up our Google doc and typed the words: “Rhett and I shared our first kiss. But not to each other.”

I watched him smile out of the corner of his eye and waited. But instead of touching my leg, he pressed his cheek to mine, his beard tickling against the corner of my mouth. And then I felt his lips, warm and familiar all these years later, gently kissing my cheek. And my insides went all hot and tingly.

I let my head tip back, my eyes closed and my mouth open in a sigh. 

“When are you going to let me kiss you again, Neal?”

Every day, McLaughlin. Every day until eternity.


End file.
